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Mar 18 Boris Feigns Cluelessness per Russian Spy Poisoning

The Brit Establishment is playing a semantics game. The alleged chemical agent that has severely poisoned an ex-Russian spy and his daughter is purported to be a Novichok type of nerve agent. This nerve agent was developed theoretically in Russia but apparently never actually manufactured there. It is easy to make for a professional chemist of whatever nationality. In the UK the semantics game revolves around the government's use of the phrase "of a type developed by Russia." This weasel word phrase avoids the matter of whether this alleged agent actually was made in Russia or in some other country. Some parts of the official British science establishment say they have no idea where it was made. But the May government has carefully selected a disinformation style campaign to pin the attack on Russia. So far, there has been no public release of the scientific data alleged by the government. Boris Johnson, the shaggy Foreign Minister, like Prime Minister May uses the carefully constructed propaganda phrasing but was called on it in an interview with a former Brit ambassador. Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador, has been campaigning for truth on the matter. He reports,

...."The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has issued a statement to refute my report from well-placed FCO sources that the British government continually re-uses the phrase “of a type developed by Russia” because its own scientists refused government pressure to say the nerve agent was made by Russia, and as getting even agreement to “of a type developed by” was bloody, the government has to stick to precisely that rather odd choice of phrase.

This is the official British Government statement:

“We have no idea what Mr Murray is referring to. The Prime Minister told MP’s on Monday that world leading experts at Porton Down had positively identified this chemical agent. It is clear that it is a military grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. None of that is in any doubt”.

Which is perhaps the most hilarious fail in the history of refutation.

The BBC sprung that statement on me during a live interview on Radio 5 last night. They also sprung on me a statement by the Israeli Embassy and were attempting to lead me into accusing Israel of the attack. But even the BBC interviewer, Stephen Nolan, was flummoxed by the rubbish he had been given from the FCO. Here is an extract from that part of the interview...."